How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #1
PROMETHEUS. I am in this wretchedness, yoked in these constraining bonds, because I gave privileges to mortals: I hunted for, and stole, a source of fire, putting it into a fennel-stalk, and it has shown itself to be mortals' great resource and their teacher in every skill. Such is the offence for which I am paying this penalty, pinned in these bonds under an open sky. (101-113)
If Prometheus knew in advance what would happen, that implies that he chose what would happen—in other words, that he's deliberately sacrificed himself. So stop whining, already! J/k, dude, we love you.
Quote #2
PROMETHEUS. It's very easy for someone who is standing safely out of trouble to advise and rebuke someone who is in trouble. I knew all that, all along. I did the wrong thing intentionally, intentionally, I won't deny it: by helping mortals, I brought trouble on myself. But I certainly never thought I would have a punishment anything like this, left to wither on these elevated rocks, my lot cast on this deserted, neighbourless crag. Now stop lamenting my present woes: descend to the ground and hear of my future fortunes, so that you will know it all to the end. Do as I ask, do as I ask. (257-274)
Okay, now Prometheus is saying he didn't actually know what his punishment would be like. So would he have chosen differently if he knew what he knows now? And does his theft of fire become less of a sacrifice if he didn't have clear knowledge of what was going to happen to him?
Quote #3
IO. Finally a clear word came to Inachus, plainly telling and enjoining him to thrust me out of my house and my native place, to wander unprotected on the furthest confines of the land; and that if he refused, a fiery thunderbolt would come from Zeus that would annihilate the entire family. Persuaded by these oracles of Loxias, he expelled me and shut me out of his house—as reluctant to do it as I was to go: the bridle of Zeus compelled him against his will to act thus. (655-672)
Hey, Io is a sacrifice, too. But their situations aren't exactly identical: Prometheus sacrifices himself; Io is sacrificed by her dad. That's a pretty big difference.
Quote #4
PROMETHEUS. Such is the prophecy that was narrated to me by my mother of ancient birth, Themeis the Titaness; but how and in what way it is to happen would take a lengthy narrative to explain, and you would profit nothing by learning it. (853-876)
We finally get to the end of this long story and find out that Prometheus is cutting things short for us? Yikes. That's pretty intense. Given that Prometheus already knows the many, many generations he's going to have to spend chained to this rock, we think he deserves seriously respect for going head-to-head with Zeus for the benefit of mankind. That shows a major spirit of sacrifice.
Quote #5
PROMETHEUS. You are making yourself a nuisance to no purpose, as if you were giving advice to the waves. Let it never enter your thoughts that I might fear the intentions of Zeus, become womanish in mentality, and implore the one I hate so greatly, stretching out my upturned palms as women do, to free me from these bonds. One hundred per cent, no!
Hermes wants Prometheus to reveal the identity of the woman who is destined to bear a son more powerful than his father—a woman that Zeus definitely doesn't want to sleep with by accident. (Hint: keep your hooves off of Io.) But Prometheus is having none of it. He insists that this was all "planned out long ago." In other words, his actions are a deliberate sacrifice, not mere stubbornness on the spur of the moment.
Quote #6
HERMES. It looks as though, however much I say, I will say it in vain. My entreaties have made you no softer or more pliable; like a newly-harnessed colt, you have taken the bit between your teeth, and you are struggling and fighting against the reins. But it is an unsound strategy that makes you so vehement: for someone who is not thinking sensibly, pure unadulterated obstinacy has no power at all. If you do not do as I have said, consider what a tempest, what a triple wave of evil, will assail you, from which no escape will be possible. (1007-1016)
Here, Hermes continues to outline the suffering that is in store for Prometheus. With his references to Prometheus's "unsound strategy," he's basically calling him crazy, and unable to make informed decisions. Could this be his way of undercutting Prometheus's argument that he's making a sacrifice? After all, part of what makes a sacrifice a sacrifice is the fact that it's deliberate.
Quote #7
HERMES. Of such torment expect no end until some god appears to be your successor in suffering and is willing to go down to rayless Hades and the dark depths of Tartarus. Make your decision in the light of that, because this threat is no invention, it has all too certainly been uttered. For the mouth of Zeus does not know how to lie; he fulfills every word he speaks. So consider and reflect: do not suppose that self-will is ever better policy than prudence. (1016-1035)
Here, Hermes is outlining the horrible punishments that Prometheus will have to endure as a way of threatening him. At the same time, he argues that Prometheus is not being "prudent," that his actions show that he is not in his right mind, and that he's therefore not making a true sacrifice. But isn't there a risk that Hermes's plan will backfire? Doesn't giving Prometheus an extensive decision of the horrors that await him just make him more capable of making an informed decision—and thus making a true sacrifice?
Quote #8
PROMETHEUS. let him cast my body headlong into black Tartarus, whirling it down in cruel compulsion: come what may, he won't kill me. (1040-1053)
Prometheus is ready to suffer any torture Zeus can imagine, because he's chosen this course of action. That, Shmoopers, is a real sacrifice.
Quote #9
CHORUS. [moving closer to PROMETHEUS] Say something else; give me advice that will actually persuade me, because that was certainly not a tolerable suggestion that you trailed past me. How can you advise me to behave like a coward? I am willing to stay with him and suffer what I must […]. (1054-1068)
Now the Chorus is stepping up—inspired by Prometheus's words, they say that they are willing to sacrifice themselves too. Aw, isn't that sweet? Admirable as it may be, we have to wonder why they're doing it. Is it solidarity for their friend, or solidarity for his cause? If they're just doing it because they like Prometheus, isn't that just a little dim-witted?
Quote #10
HERMES. Well, remember what I have proclaimed, and when disaster hunts you down do not complain about your fate, nor ever say that Zeus cast you into a calamity that you had not foreseen. No, indeed; you will have brought it on yourselves, for knowingly, not by surprise nor by deception, you will have been caught up in the inescapable net of disaster through your own folly. (1071-1079)
Now, late in the game, Hermes changes the terms of the debate. This time around, he says that the Chorus and Prometheus are making a conscious choice, but that this conscious choice is itself "folly." Does this mean that Hermes thinks they are making a sacrifice, only one he doesn't approve of? Or is this just his way of washing his hands of the whole issue?